This blog has nothing to do with refrigerator magnets or our business. This is about geography, technology, and having some fun: Geocaching. With the advent of inexpensive global positioning system (GPS) devices, a new outdoor activity was invented based on the old letterboxing idea. Think of it as a high-tech game of hide-and-seek. The official definition is:

“The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment.”

Worldwide, geocachers turn to Geocaching.com as the center of the online activity for adding new caches, finding the coordinates of existing ones, and logging those your have found. There are 763,297 active geocaches around the world.

My cache, aptly called critters, is the tenth oldest in Indiana and second oldest in Tippecanoe County. For you geography fans, its latitude and longitude is N 40° 29.238, W 086° 51.841. I won’t tell you were its hidden, that’s your job!

When geocaching started in 2000, most of the participants were nerdy males with expensive toys, but that has changed. Now everyone is participating using cheaper GPS-enabled devices, laptops, and smart phones. Many families stop by the cache as part of a day’s outing, or while traveling on a vacation grabbing caches along the way. And its not just men anymore; recently, four women and girls, from three generations in the same family, found the cache.

One advantage of having your workshop in the country is that land is plentiful. This spring, we’ve decided to put in a small garden for our apartment dwelling employees.

We are going organic. The plot hasn’t been tilled for eight years, and before that it was a horse pasture, so the soil is herbicide and pesticide free. The first task was to till up the grass near an outside faucet. To improve the soil, we had some organic, compost soil hauled in from Soilmaker.com. Yes, the soil really is that black!

We’ll use any unplanted garden space to grow some give-away veggies like heirloom Brandywine tomatoes. Cucumbers and squash are a big favorite around here. Also on the short-list are hot peppers for making hot sauce, and cabbage for authentic fermented sauerkraut. We might even start some perennials like asparagus and rhubarb, too.